My Poetry, Poetry, RattleBag and Rhubarb

The Gossips

She never!            She did! Well blow me            A right carry-on What a palaver             It’s always something More out than in so they say             You could have knocked me down with a feather Well I should say so          …

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Art, Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Dare to be Different: Teach C17th Skills not C21st Fads

It’s becoming harder and harder for independent schools to stand out from the crowd. Unless a school is truly a place that is clearly defined by a unique mission – and has the program and lived values to bolster the claim – it risks sinking. Either a facilities arms race will outpower it or lower price alternatives will undercut the…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Where’s Your School On This Spectrum? Where Do You Want It To Be?

If you’re thinking about branding and how to market your school (and who isn’t these days?) then it’s good to have a strong agreed upon sense of who you are, how you show who you are and what people actually think. Where are you? So try this quick test with your board, your admin team and the faculty. You can…

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Education, Poetry, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Those School Brochures: How to stand out from the crowd

If you’re in the market for an independent school – or a college for that matter – you will have seen your fill of those wonderful shiny brochures aka viewbooks that now primarily reside on websites. And as you read, you think Wow! This sounds good. Look at this stuff they do and how they care and how kids excel.…

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Art, Poetry, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Poem (I lived in the first century of world wars)

Muriel Rukeyser wrote this in 1968. Read it and tell me it doesn’t feel like she is writing for this moment in history.  How many mornings recently have you been “more or less insane” as the news pours out of “various devices”? Poem (I lived in the first century of world wars) I lived in the first century of world…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Killer Apps and Slideshows

Nobody has actually died from watching a slide show presentation. That whole Death by Powerpoint thing was much exaggerated. What’s true is that countless people have been held hostage by interminable presentations often alleged to be a workshop at which nobody actually works and little is learned. And – true confession – I have been as guilty as anyone in…

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Books, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Social Media and the Two-Minute Hate

Near the beginning of George Orwell’s 1984  our hero Winston Smith attends a rally at the Ministry of Truth where he works in the Records Department. It’s the daily ritual two-minute hate – a routine emotional release designed to keep everyone full of fear and enraged at the enemies of the state. Before the Hate had proceeded for thirty seconds,…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb, WW1

“So you want to be a head of school ….” Communication

I’ve been asked on occasion to add my two cents on a panel at the NYSAIS conference for assistant heads and division directors in a session they call “So, you want to be a head.” My participation has more to do with the geographical proximity of Poughkeepsie to the conference venue at Mohonk Mountain House than with any presumed super…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Ten Heads, Ten Years, Ten Lessons and some Clickbait

The official title was Ten Heads, Ten Years, Ten Lessons: INH Class Members of ’06 Tell Their Tales INH – meaning Institute for New Heads run by NAIS that year in Washington, DC. Fast forward to 2016 and John Huber had the idea for sharing some collective wisdom and insight at the NAIS Annual conference in San Francisco. The conference theme…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Learning and Social Media: Option, Opportunity and Obligation

If you’re reading this online then you are engaged in social media. You are consuming. I’ve been thinking about education and social media not so much as an option but as an opportunity and an obligation – something we owe ourselves as learners and something we owe our students as teachers. We all know that we live an era of…

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Poetry, RattleBag and Rhubarb

The Night Mail

This is the Night Mail crossing the border, Bringing the cheque and the postal order, Letters for the rich, letters for the poor, The shop at the corner and the girl next door. Just watch this clip from “Night Mail” –  the documentary film from 1936 – and be transported to another time, another place. It’s the London, Midland, and…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Toot your Trumpet: the NAIS Inspiration Lab

So easy to toot your own horn these days. The harder thing is to cut through the cacophony and have others hear the tuneful joyful noise! I’m enjoying the new Inspiration Lab from NAIS designed to allow member schools to highlight their work. We sent in our first contribution yesterday. It was a screenshot of Global Read Aloud book discussion that…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Snow Days and Disruption: An open letter to families

Dear PDS Families: A few lines (with minor edits)  from division in-boxes and my twitter feed: Student: I just wanted to say how I’ve never been so productive or so academically aware on a Snow day. I’ve been working all day today and yesterday making up work for the D day and other classes. I feel home schooled. I miss school. 🙁 Faculty: Just…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

No More Snow Days

School is closed tomorrow – Wednesday – because of the impending storm. In anticipation, middle school director George Swain spoke to the students at lunch about how to make best use of the day. (It included plenty of time for play and being outdoors if that is possible.) And this is from the letter he wrote to parents: Dear Middle…

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